Recently Lost, Newly Found
by LucyFireTen
Summary: Sequel to "This Love" (I suggest you read that first) What happens if little Edward is left alone? Will he be able to deal with his recent losses? Will he find a new order in the chaos of his life? We'll see...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: sadly, I don't own Doctor Who. BBC does. **

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Edward opened the tap and let the water flow until it became icy. He cupped some of it in his hands and roughly washed his face with it, soaking his hair too. Edward shivered lightly at the sensation, which was intense even though he didn't suffer from the low temperature. Numerous cold drops rolled down his cheeks and neck, tempering the heat of his skin and the warmth of his tears.

The boy looked at his reflex in the mirror: his eyes were red with crying, but he could still see their golden-brown: he had his mother's eyes. He had inherited the black thick hair of the Doctor's ninth self, even though he wore it in the same messy way his father did, except he couldn't have sideburns yet, being only 16. His skinny body trembled again thinking about his parents. He still couldn't believe he had lost them.

His image in the mirror was almost too painful to bear, everything reminding him of his parents. Wandering through the TARDIS's corridors, his mind completely blank, sorrow and grief tearing his hearts apart, Edward ended up in the console room.

It didn't make him feel better: he could almost see his father roam around the console, starting the engines, or underneath it, fixing something. He could almost hear his voice asking him or his mother for help. But the Doctor wasn't there for him. Not anymore.

He broke down, the back of his head against the console, and started to cry again. He had never been the strong one. Never needed to be the strong one: he had never faced something like this. He hated the TARDIS for taking him in the console room: nothing was casual with her. If you ended up somewhere, it was because she wanted you there.

"Do you want me to travel, you old box?" he said aloud, "really? You must be kidding" he stated coldly, hatred for her and need to give vent on his sorrow increasing. The TARDIS let him feel in his mind that travelling wasn't what she meant. Maybe…

"Enable voice interface!" he said, more barking than just speaking, annoyed and almost enraged. He wasn't patient or calm, just like his father, and he was in that age when no-one is calm or patient.

A hologram of himself appeared in front of Edward.

"I was tired of seeing them on my face, remember? Stop it."

The hologram changed into his mother's one.

"I hate you." He said to the TARDIS. But maybe he didn't hate her. Maybe his mother was the only person he wanted to see right now. The only one who could console him.

"Mum" he said, new tears beginning to roll down his cheeks. He felt the urge to hug her, but he knew he couldn't.

"I am not your mother, I am a voice interface. Rose Tyler and the Doctor are lost."

"Tell me something I don't know, _you old pile of junk_!" he shouted, enraged, punching the console behind him, with the vain hope that the physical pain would lessen the one he felt in his soul.

"Do not insult my ship, young man" the hologram said, now with his dad's face, in his brown pinstriped suit and long coat, a severe look in his deep brown eyes that the real Doctor could never keep for more than one second in front of his beloved child.

"Oh, so you are him now? You said 'my ship'."

"I am not the Doctor. I am a voice interface. The Doctor and Ro-"

"Don't you dare, don't you _dare_ say it again, or I will dismantle you _piece by piece_. You know I can." He paused. "I don't think I would be able to reassemble you, though" he said threateningly. It was perfectly true that he could never reassemble her: the TARDIS's floor quaked lightly, and in his mind Edward felt her disapproval for his words. Eventually, the hologram spoke again:

"There is a holographic message left. Do you want to listen to it?"

A message. From his parents? It made sense. With the life they had, they had probably considered this could happen.

"Yes, why didn't you tell me before?" he said, too distracted by the thought of the message to pretend he was annoyed.

A new hologram appeared, a recorded one this time, showing both of his parents, side to side, holding hands and smiling to him. Edward's hearts skipped a pair of beats.

His father was the first to speak:

"Hello, Edward." He made a pause. "If this message is activated, it can only mean one thing" he said.

"It means we're not likely to see you again, love" his mum said.

"I'm sorry, Ed. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to leave you alone."

"_We _didn't."

"Yes, we. I hope we did our best to stay. I hope we did everything we could to protect you from whatever it was that separated us."

"What your father is trying to say is that we love you. So much. Remember it, okay? We will always love you."

"Yes and, Ed… be strong. I know it's hard. I know very well. But you can do this. You are my son. You can… go on. Have your life."

"Oh, dad. I don't think I can go on like this. What will I do without you?" Edward whispered. It was stupid, talking to a recorded hologram, but he couldn't help it.

"Have a fantastic life" his mum said, smiling, "make mistakes. Learn from them. Get in trouble. Solve problems. Grow up. Do beautiful things. Whatever you want, it doesn't matter: I know it's gonna be wonderful."

"Be a good man, my son" his father said, "show mercy if you can. Don't let anger or despair rule you. And don't harden your heart. Trust the people who deserve it and…" he glanced at his wife, "…love. Love with both your hearts. Don't repeat my mistakes: don't be afraid of suffering, because it's worth it. It really is worth it."

"Yes, do this for me and for your dad, Thete. Fall in love. Fight for what you believe in and for the people you love, because that, well, _that_ is really always worth it."

"Never give up, son. And don't be too sad. Stay strong: it's nature, parents leave their children alone one day. Children bury their parents. And as your mother taught me, we all must die one day."

"But you were young, dad!" Edward protested, warm tears falling on the floor, hearts aching with overwhelming grief. "And mum, you were _so_ young. And I-I can't go on. I can't live alone. I need you! I'm still… a kid." his voice broke.

"We are running out of time" his father said, "this thing can't record forever. Goodbye Edward. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I wanted to see you grow up. Wanted to see the man you will become. I'm sorry I won't be there for you when you will need me."

"I need you now." Edward sobbed, brushing his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater, trying to wipe up the tears.

"Goodbye and… I love you. Very much. Never forget this, Edward."

His dad's last words. Edward wasn't sure he could bear his mother's ones as well.

"It doesn't matter if we won't be physically there, love. We will be with you, always, in your hearts. Remember us. Remember we love you, we always had and we always will. Really, remember: your mum loves you so much, Little Thete."

The hologram vanished, leaving Edward sighing and crying like a child. And he was. 16 is a very early age for a Time Lord, he was barely a teenager, decades far from adulthood. His mum calling him Little Thete was his undoing. She loved calling him after his father, and she used to say it in such a tender voice, expressing all the combined love for both Edward and the Doctor, that always melt his hearts.

A tiny, not less sweet voice shook Edward from his thoughts, the harmonic sound of the Gallifreyan language pleasing his ears tired of his loud sobs and cries.

"Why 're ya cryin' Eddy? And why 're ya 'lone? Where 're mom an' daddy?"

Edward thought things couldn't get worst. He was alone, completely alone. His parents were dead. He would never see them again. And he had to explain it to a five-years-old sister.

**A/N: Hello! New fic! I'm all excited, basically because I love inventing new characters for a known universe.**

"**He had his mother's eyes" is an obvious HP quote: sorry, it popped up in my mind and I just couldn't resist.**

**There will be mysteries and adventure in this fic, and this is always the most difficult part to write for me, so I really really care about your opinion: review, review and review :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Turning to face the little girl, Thete tried to dry up his tears with the sleeve of his red sweater.

"I-I'm not crying, what are you talking about?" he said, forcing a smile.

"Ye'! I saw ya!" like every little kid, she ate some letters by the way.

That little girl. Five years old, with the same childish mind of a three-year-old human but almost as intelligent as a human adult. Maybe a little bit over the average for a Time Lady of her age, but it was fair, as the Doctor had always been over the average as well.

His sister stepped towards him, firmly holding the arm of her teddy-bear with one hand and rubbing her right eye with the tiny fist of the other. She had just woken up, he realized. Seeing her wasn't helping his aching hearts: if Edward didn't clearly resemble one of his parents, his sister's resemblance to their mother was more than evident. The shape of her face, chin, nose, lips, eyebrows was exactly the same, in a younger version. Only two differences separated them: the ice-blue eyes of his father's ninth self and the fourth self's curly hair –even though blonde as Rose Tyler's one- that was always partially hidden by a large floppy fedora. The same his father had worn in his fourth life. A flashback hit Edward's mind.

'_I used to have curly hair like yours in my fourth life' the Doctor said, caressing his daughter's face._

'_Really? How wer' ya back then, daddy?'_

'_Oh, so different. And I had a terrible taste in clothes… I used to wear an impossibly long scarf and a ridiculous old hat.'_

'_Really? Wanna see ya! Do you hav' a pic?'_

"_No. No, I don't. But I'll do better" the Doctor answered, a knowing look and a manic grin on his face._

_~oOo~_

'_Here am I!'_

_Rose and Edward laughed at him, with those clothes too short and large for his tall, skinny frame, that stupid hat and that multi-coloured, incredibly long scarf and a frock coat that really didn't suit that face. But the little blonde girl stared at him in awe, jumping all around him a second later, trying to reach his fedora. Eventually, the Doctor gave it to his precious girl:_

'_You can keep it, if you like it this much.'_

_The young Gallifreyan giggled as he pressed the hat on her head, her laughter the same her mother had._

Thete got out of that memory even more broken than when it had begun. He hugged his little sister tight, thinking that his father used to do that and that she used to bury her face into his father's neck as she was doing with him now. His eyes became bright when he thought she would never hug their father like that again. Never again. But he couldn't cry in front of her. He had never been the strong one before, but he had to be now.

"Where 're mum an' dad?" she asked again.

"They're not here with us anymore."

He knew she knew. She was old enough to feel that there were only two of them in the telepathic field. Just the two of them. Edward's world had never felt so small. His parents had always been part of his field, and now it felt narrow as a loop around his throat, threatening to kill him with the painful hold of sorrow.

"When will they com' back?"

"They won't come back, sweetheart." There was no point in lying to her.

"W-why?" Ed felt she was starting to sob.

"They can't."

His sister tightened her grip on him, digging into his sweater and almost hurting him with her little nails. He concentrated on that feeling to hold his tears back. _'Be strong'_ his father's voice said in his mind. After a long moment, they parted and he firmly grabbed her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes as he lifted her tiny chin, tears rolling down her cheeks, the little girl sighing and sniffling.

"Don't be sad. I'm here for you. Mum and dad said they love you. So much. They said I had to tell you. And that you must remember it."

Thankfully, he was almost as good as his father at lying. The holographic message didn't mention her. Probably, it was so old it didn't make sense to say 'take care of your sister' of something like that, or maybe so old that she wasn't born at all. Or maybe their parents didn't think they would really die this young, and wanted to record another message only for his sister later on. In Thete's mind, this was the most likely and saddest possibility, his parents dying so young, far earlier than they expected.

"I will be here for you. I will never leave you. I'll take care of you."

"Eddy…" she whined.

The boy pulled her close and hugged her again. His forehead touched hers and he linked their minds just for some brief moments, just to comfort her, just to let her feel he was there for her. He remembered the first time he had felt her in the telepathic field.

_He woke up in the middle of the night feeling something was different, a sensation in the back of his mind. It felt like they weren't three anymore… but it was something confused, like three and a half. Instinctively he got to his parents' bedroom, looking for them. As he got near the door, he heard them talking, in English, as they always did when they thought they were alone._

'_Doctor. Doctor, wake up.'_

'_Hmm?' his father's voice was choked, suggesting he had his face buried in the pillow._

'_Wake up, I said! Do you feel it? I'm not just imagining it, right?'_

'… _no. No, you aren't.' Edward heard his father slowly move in the bed, maybe just turning to his side to go back to sleep. 'Wait! No, you aren't! Rose, you are-'_

'_Yes' she interrupted him, 'You said it would be hard for us to have other children.'_

'_I said hard, not impossible! Come here, let me kiss you'_

_Edward heard his father kiss her. As they stopped, Edward stepped into the room. His parents were cuddling in bed. His mum quickly grabbed a shirt from the floor and wore it, at the same time covering them with the sheets to their hips._

'_Thete, why are you awake already? Bad dreams? Oh- He feels it, doesn't he?' she asked, to him at first, then to his father._

'_Of course he does' his dad said, grinning. 'Come here, little boy' he said to his son. 'Ed, it looks like you are going to have a-' he frowned, doing something with his screwdriver, then he grinned again: 'a sister!' he looked enthusiastic._

_Thete thought about that for a moment, wondering if he was okay with that. As he decided that yes, he was, he definitely was, he asked:_

'_How are you going to call her?'_

'_She should have both a human and a timelord name, like Little Thete does' his mum said to her husband. 'And you should choose, Doctor. I chose Edward Thete, so…'_

'_I should call her after you. You called Thete after me' his father stated_

'_Oh, Doctor…'_

'_Please, Rose. Please? Just second name, okay? Like Thete.' He looked at her with a pair of puppy eyes that made Edward laugh._

'_Oh, God, okay, okay! Which will the first name be, then? Any Gallifreyan name you like?'_

'…_I had always liked Hanny'ra. Means 'bright star' in Gallifreyan, more or less.'_

Hanny'ra Rose Tyler. But for him, for Edward, she will always be just Hanny.

"I know it's tough, Hanny, I know. But do you know what matters? That we're together" he uttered, more to reassure himself than his sister. "It was always about us, wasn't it? Us stealing Dad's glasses. Us playing with the TARDIS' controls. Us digging in Sarah Jane's flowerbeds. Us hiding Luke's toys. Us reading, playing, laughing together. Know what? We'll visit Sarah Jane, yes?"

He had been wondering how to forget some of the pain for hours, but now the answer was clear. He would do what his father had always done: don't stop, keep running. _Go on_. Don't stop to think about past, just keep running from it. As the Doctor had discovered, this would never heal the wounds, but Edward thought that maybe, just _maybe_, they would at least stop bleeding if he forgot them for enough time.

He had piloted the TARDIS before, but rarely alone and never with this mood. Never hating her this much and never with her hating him this much, it does need saying. Not that the TARDIS had ever liked him, as he used to play with her controls when he was younger, licking cables, burning them, sometimes switching pieces, which usually ended with the TARDIS scolding him with little electric shocks. He was brilliant, just like every other Time Lord, but he didn't really know what he was doing. Like that time he had played with the artificial-gravity circuit. That had been _fun_.

Anyway, his hands were a bit shaky as he pushed the last button.

Forcing a smile, Edward half-shouted: "Come on, Hanny! Let's go see dear old Sarah Jane!" _'I hope' _he thought, but he didn't say that aloud.

His sister got behind him immediately, grabbing his jeans to hold on something. The TARDIS landed with his usual noise and Edward reached the door. As he pulled it to open it, someone pushed it at the same time, stepping inside. And it wasn't Sarah Jane.

A man stood in front of him: not as tall as the Doctor, but with wider shoulders. He had dark hair, light blue-grey eyes. Quite a handsome man, a flirtatious smirk on his face. Thete immediately recognised the sensation of how wrong he was, the one of a living fixed point. Captain Jack Harkness.

No doubt, this was the TARDIS' revenge for having insulted her and for having punched the console.

"Oh, how much I hate you, you _damned old pile of junk_!"

**A/N: Hello! It took me a while to update… I dare to promise that this is more or less the frequency you should expect me to update with. The first two chapters were to set the story a bit, action will begin with the next chapter :) **


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, how much I hate you, _you damned old pile of junk_!" Edward uttered, disgusted.

"Ah!" Jack exclaimed, smirking, "I know you don't like me, Ed, and I would most certainly say I'm damned, and I'm quite old already, but _pile of junk_? Really? I thought I was still quite handsome!"

"I wasn't talking to you, Harkness." Edward stated, coldly.

"So you _do_ think I'm handsome! Never really doubted it, ah-ah."

Edward sighed. He hated the feeling of Jack around him. His timeline was an unbearable mess, fixed and at the same time unpredictable like an equation with too many variables: something that drove his little timelord brain mad.

Thete remembered the first time he had met the Captain, a long time before, during a trip to Cardiff to use the energy of the Rift.

_As the handsome man stepped in the TARDIS, a three-year-old Edward hid behind his mother's legs, feeling something very wrong in the human. _

'_Hello!' the man exclaimed, smirking._

'_Jack. Stop it.' The Doctor said._

'_Jack! How can you be alive? And, Doctor, why does he feel so…wrong?' Rose asked._

'_I should ask you why the bloody hell you left me behind. Rose, pleased to see you again. You look gorgeous.'_

'_He's a living fixed point, Rose. Jack…first, don't swear in front of my child. Second, don't flirt with my wife!' _

'_Your WHAT?'_

_Edward timidly stepped out from behind his mother's legs, and she smiled._

'_I'm a married woman, now, Jack. How did you find us, anyway?'_

'_I've got a Doctor detector.' Jack said, showing a hand in a jar._

"Don't make that face!" Jack said. "We were quite in need of the Doctor…oh!" he noticed Hanny, who had stepped out from behind Thete's legs. "_Hello_, beautiful."

"Jack. Stop it."

"Like father, like son, yeah? Where's your dad, anyway? I told you I was quite hoping to see him."

Edward didn't make a single move and looked on the ground, firmly intentioned not to cry in front of Jack.

"Well, Ed? Where are your parents?"

The young Time Lord remained silent, and after a while Jack's grin faded, replaced by a horrified expression.

"Ed…you're not telling me-"

"Yes," he answered eventually, his voice almost a whisper, "I am telling you. They are…" it was still so difficult for him to accept it, and he couldn't quite say it. "They are… not with us anymore."

"Oh, Ed…"

Jack stepped towards him to pull him into a comforting hug, but Thete turned his back to him.

"No, Jack. Please, no" he said. _'I don't want your pity'_ he added in his mind.

Jack didn't add a word and stood behind Edward, arms crossed, lost in thought.

Edward's mind was racing. Trying not to think of his parents, he concentrated on something his father had understood some years before: it was never truly casual with the TARDIS. She always took you when you were needed, where you had to be, even though perhaps not where you _wanted_ to be. Ed took a deep breath and turned towards Jack:

"I had plans, Jack, but I'll give a look to that problem of yours, okay?"

"Oh, great. Thank you, Ed. Just, you know, I don't think it's a _little_ problem…"

The Captain hesitated, and Edward understood that the human wanted the Doctor, not his kid son. A wave of anger mixed with the rather legendary pride that characterized his people hit Thete. A bright spark lighted up his eyes for a second, and a manic grin involuntarily appeared on his face:

"Don't worry, Harkness. I have some tricks up my sleeve, too."

"Caught, I guess?" Jack asked, forcing a smile.

"Yeah. Time Lord, remember? I'm young, not retarded. You go on, I'll follow you in a minute."

The human nodded and opened the doors. "Hurry, though."

He got out and left Thete alone once again. The young Time Lord turned to face his sister, who had stayed silent all the time. Ed knew she had been listening and he knew that she had understood something, even though she couldn't speak English very well yet and usually used only Gallifreyan.

"Will ya leav' me 'lone?" she asked in the musical language of their people.

"I must, Hanny. I must help Jack."

"I hate when ya hav' adventures withou' me" she whined.

"No adventures. I promise. Just boring dangerous human stuff, okay?"

After a while, she asked: "Will ya com' back?"

Gods, Ed didn't have the faintest idea she would think something like that, but she was five and had just lost her parents: there was nothing surprising at all. He kneeled near her:

"Of course I will, dear. Be a good girl, hmm? Just go to your room and play a bit, okay? I will be back before you can miss me, okay?"

"…'kay."

She hugged Ed tightly and disappeared in the corridors shortly after.

The boy turned towards the TARDIS's console.

"Now, now, Old Box. We have to reach an agreement. You know what I need."

~oOo~

"So you think _something_ came out of the Rift?" asked Thete, scanning the room with his brand new sonic screwdriver. It felt incredibly wrong, using it: after a bit of _calm and rational_ diplomacy and a lot of threats he had obtained a new sonic from the TARDIS, but the ship hadn't grated him much more. The sonic was exactly like his father's one, and Ed hated that. It reminded him of his dad, which was precisely what he wanted to avoid.

"Yes, well, you see, it's not like there could be doubts." Jack answered.

The human was right, obviously: the room was a mess. A desk was broken into two halves of wood with serrated edges and sheets were scattered to pieces on the floor. The light bulb was burnt and a large number of shards of glass was on the floor near the crashed window and many more shards were on the private street two metres below it that lead to Torchwood's courtyard, suggesting that the window had been broken from the inside.

"The door was locked" Jack continued, "we just heard noises upstairs and when we came and opened the door we found this."

Ed looked at the results on his sonic. "Non-standard life form."

"And is it a good or a bad thing?"

Edward glanced nervously at him. "Bad. Very bad."

"Unearthly?"

"Most certainly."

The Time Lord scanned further, as the sonic was sensing something very close. He stepped forward carefully, until he reached the wall. He examined it from ceiling to floor, then knelt in front of it, following his sonic. He moved one half of the desk easily, superior timelord strength on his side.

"Oooh, look at you. What are you?" Ed wondered, thinking aloud.

"Ed?"

"Look at this, Jack."

The boy shifted slightly to let the Captain see what was behind the broken desk: in the wall there was a little, bright crack, about two feet long.

"What _the hell_ is that?"

"Hmm. Don't know. A spacey-creepy thing. Let's see…" Thete said, trying to look into the crack with one eye open and one shut and seeing nothing but white light.

Maybe it was that one drop of human blood with its human curiosity, maybe it was the Doctor's genes, but Edward was going mad with need to touch the crack. It felt like it was…calling him. With his astonishment, he had two fingers very close to it already. Startled, the Time Lord moved his hand away and scanned the crack with the sonic instead.

The results, added to what he had read and saw before, gave him the answer. He kept scanning the crack, laying on the floor, and looking at it while talking:

"It's a crack in the fabric of this universe. Opened to the Void and possibly to another universe. Probably."

"Like the breach Torchwood opened before the battle of Canary Warf?"

"Yes. No. Almost. This is smaller, but at the same time it's growing bigger all by itself. The breach you're talking about didn't widen without Torchwood constantly opening and closing it…"

"I can sense a 'but' in that sentence." Jack stated.

"_But _cracks in the fabric of the universe don't just open by themselves. It's impossible." Ed said, finally getting up from the floor and patting his clothes to shake off the dust.

"You're not done, c'mon, say it."

Ed sighed: "Question is, why Torchwood is always implied? London or Cardiff, it doesn't matter: it is always about you."

"Edward, I swear that we didn't do anything that could cause this. We would never. You know I would never do something like that, and these are my most trusted men and women."

The Time Lord looked straight into the human's eyes for several seconds before answering:

"I may also believe you, Jack, but you could have done it involuntarily" he said. "Alien technology and human stupidity can be unbeatable" he added, voice a little lower.

"Oi, I heard that, you know?" Jack exclaimed. "What does this crack mean, anyway?"

"It means something got in… or got out, breaking the walls between this universe and the Void… and the universe is being torn apart. It's slowly dying, ripped in a million fragments."

"You are kidding, I hope?!"

"I would never. We have time, months, years maybe, but it's already happening. Years, of course, if this is the only crack. I can't be sure."

"Can't you stop it?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. Only understanding why it's widening. If I did understand it, I could maybe try to reverse the process and close the crack. Maybe. Hopefully."

"I don't like all those 'maybe' "

"Neither do I, but you know what? We have a worse problem now."

"What's worse than the end of the universe?"

"Whatever broke the window of this room… I don't think it came from the Rift." Edward stated, a disturbing smile on his face.

Jack's mouth fell open in realization, and a second later they heard shouts from the courtyard outside: both the Captain and the Time Lord ran to the window, only to see an enormous black, four-legged beast trapping two of Jack's men between itself and a wall.

.

.

**A/N: This Jack and this Torchwood are, in my mind, years after the events in the show, that's why I didn't put Ianto or Gwen in it, and I didn't use the Hub as the Torchwood base, even though we are in Cardiff.**

**Of course, the idea of the crack in a wall is taken from the show, but this crack is quite different.**


End file.
